The WGA serves as the eyes, ears and feetat the State’s Capitol for those in the retail food industry. On a daily basis, the WGA is monitoring legislation, watching agency activities and actively engaging in the legislative process to prevent costly legislation and burdensome regulations from being imposed on the grocery industry.

The WGA develops a legislative agenda
prior to the start of the Legislative session that serves as the general guidelines on key issues that the Legislature may discuss. In addition, the WGA reviews more than 1500 bills each session that are introduced in the State Capitol to assess their impact on the grocery industry. If bills are introduced that have the potential to negatively or positively affect any aspect of the grocery industry, the WGA will develop a position and strategy to address the issue. This includes alerting members through Action Alerts, engaging members to contact legislators and actively lobbying the Legislature on the industry’s behalf.

As a compliment to the WGA’s legislative efforts, the WGA sponsors a Political Action Committee
(PAC) and Conduit which allows retailers to make personal contributions to candidates that support our industry. In addition, the WGA participates in Wisconsin Small Businesses United , a non-profit advocacy group dedicated to improving the Wisconsin economic climate for its residents and small businesses.

The WGA’s government affairs program has been highly successfulresulting in hundreds of legislative victories—whether defeating harmful legislation or supporting issues that benefit the industry. Many aspects of the WGA’s government affairs program depend on members’ involvement physically and financially. The result is that, together, we are able to ensure the retail food industry in Wisconsin is strong and continues to thrive.